A just-finished audit and several state inspector general's reports make one thing clear: The former management of Workforce Central Florida often ignored or overlooked state and federal financial reporting guidelines.

The publicly funded jobs agency skirted or misunderstood rules governing everything from employee timecards to board-member conflicts of interest, the documents indicate. The audit, covering a yearlong period ending June 30, 2011, identifies 17 separate problems and more than $15 million in questionable costs.

Meanwhile, five inspector general's reports cite $295,000 in disallowed or questionable expenditures, including $8,000 spent on capes as part of a public-relations campaign and $194,000 to lease computers. But just how much the agency will be required to repay is unclear.

Barring an order from regulators, the agency is under no obligation to pay back questionable expenses cited in the internal audit. And state officials say just $51,000 identified in the inspector general's reports were prohibited expenditures. Money spent on the capes already has been repaid.

The other items — worth about $244,000 — reflect "poor management decisions" but do not "rise to the level of violating" state and federal rules, a spokesman for the Department of Economic Opportunity wrote in an email.

Workforce is the region's federally funded jobs agency, charged with helping people find work and helping employers find talent. It has received more than $100 million in federal taxes in the past five years.

Agency Chairman Kevin Shaughnessy, appointed last fall when the previous board was forced out, said the agency is working on mending its relationship with state officials and does not know how much it may be asked to repay. Given that regional work-force boards are generally prohibited from using federal-grant money to repay disallowed costs, the money would likely to come from the five counties the agency serves.

"We are dealing with and have been dealing with the consequences of the prior board's actions for several months," Shaughnessy said. "We don't know yet what the final costs will be."

Several of the issues came to light in a series of stories in the Orlando Sentinel that highlighted questionable management and financial decisions at the regional jobs agency. Those started with the agency's decision last year to conduct a public-outreach effort that proposed handing out thousands of superhero capes to the unemployed.

Taken together, the audit and the inspector general's reports provide the broadest view so far of the financial-management practices of the region's jobs board under its previous leadership. They reflect an agency that chafed under state and federal supervision, preferring to rely on its own controls.

Some of the deficiencies cited by auditors were relatively minor paperwork issues. Others were more significant: so-called "material weaknesses" that seriously undermined the agency's ability to detect and correct financial problems.

Auditors found the agency misstated certain assets and expenditures by almost $606,000, failed to receive state approval for major purchases and did not ensure that vendors were eligible to receive government contracts. It failed to conduct conflict-of-interest tests when awarding contracts and awarded some jobs, worth a total of almost $787,000, without competitive bids. In at least two instances, auditors wrote, they could find no contract all.

The internal audit also highlighted a $739,000 payment Workforce made to settle a lawsuit. State officials last year ordered the agency to pay back that money, saying it was an improper use of federal grants. The agency's new management is working with state officials, hoping they will either rescind the order or reduce its amount.

Though each incident looks bad for the agency, some also reflect what Shaughnessy called "ridiculously detailed and arcane" state and federal regulations.

Auditors, for example, questioned almost $11 million spent on employee wages, not because they thought money was spent inappropriately, but because Workforce used a timekeeping system that had not been approved by state or federal regulators.

"There was no fraud," Shaughnessy said. "People worked and were paid the right amount. They just used the wrong timecard system."

Some members of the former leadership team made clear they thought state and federal overseers were inflexible and heavy-handed. Former Workforce CEO Gary Earl often complained about the Agency for Workforce Innovation, now called the Department of Economic Opportunity, saying it tangled his organization in red tape.

"It's an oxymoron to put the term 'innovation' in the name of a state agency because they can't innovate," he said a few months before resigning. "They're in the business of not getting in trouble."

New board members are eager to put the management problems behind them, pointing out that during the past six months, they have corrected many of the problems identified in the audit and inspector general's reports. A new executive director is expected to take over next month.